R.I.P Baseball

[dman]

Originally Posted by astcell

I went to a baseball game once because I wanted to see 18 millionaires in one place.

And that was just the guys on the bench.

[Rubenonfire]

Originally Posted by dman

Let me ask another question, is it worse to have taken roids or bet on your own team? Just wondering, I really think it is the second one, YMMV.

Haha...I KNEW you were going to ask me that!

They're both equally bad, because both destroy the integrity of the game the same way in one key component...doing anything for money.

If an imaginary hall-of-famer player turned coach were accused of doing this (we'll call him "Paul Orchid") and it could be proved that he bet on his own team to LOSE while he was either playing for or managing that team, that would be terrible, and I would agree far worse than taking steroids, IMO.

The problem is (just like Barry), Paul Orchid has already been convicted in the court of public opinion for doing so, and there's really no way (other than his own statements) to truly prove that he did NOT bet against the Reds. He's guilty of gambling against his own team by default, and only NOT betting at ALL could have saved him from that, just like Barry not ever taking steroids would be the only way to prevent the "asterisk" from exisiting in the history of baseball. But also like Barry, "Orchid" had a hall of fame career BEFORE the scandal and if the Hall is really exclusively about baseball accomplishments then BOTH deserve to go.

[dman]

Originally Posted by Rubenonfire

Haha...I KNEW you were going to ask me that!

They're both equally bad, because both destroy the integrity of the game the same way in one key component...doing anything for money.

If an imaginary hall-of-famer player turned coach were accused of doing this (we'll call him "Paul Orchid") and it could be proved that he bet on his own team to LOSE while he was either playing for or managing that team, that would be terrible, and I would agree far worse than taking steroids, IMO.

The problem is (just like Barry), Paul Orchid has already been convicted in the court of public opinion for doing so, and there's really no way (other than his own statements) to truly prove that he did NOT bet against the Reds. He's guilty of gambling against his own team by default, and only NOT betting at ALL could have saved him from that, just like Barry not ever taking steroids would be the only way to prevent the "asterisk" from exisiting in the history of baseball. But also like Barry, "Orchid" had a hall of fame career BEFORE the scandal and if the Hall is really exclusively about baseball accomplishments then BOTH deserve to go.